Overheards, kick drums and guitars!

[Worlez]

Hey Butch,
Really excited for your guest spot, the last Green Day and Subways records have been two of my favourites this year, great job!

The couple of things I've been wondering are when putting up your overheads, what are you generally looking for? I noticed on the pictures I've seen that you seem to favour an ORTF-ish pattern? Any insight into what your looking to favour with the overheads, and how you go about getting what you want, would be great!

Also, do you have any tips on getting kick drums to really sit in a mix, without too much top end, but maintaing clarity? I often find with guitar/bass heavy mixes, I end up making kick drums overly bright and slappy so as to get them heard, but they lose the weight and sound thin. Specifically All Or Nothing by the Subways, the kick drum has a fantastic smack to it, yet it doesn't appear too bright or scooped. Any advice here would be great!

Lastly, your guitar tones are always MASSIVE! How do you achieve this without swamping other elements of your mix?

Thanks very much!

Al

[Mixbuster]

I would also love to hear on this! Lovely album.

[ButchVig]

I generally like to use what I consider warmer mics for overheads, 251's
or C-24's (if they are available)...but there are so many other variables, how hard is the drummer hitting? how complicated is the part? what is the sound of the room? And what cymbals did you choose (props to Mike Fasano by the way, he was the drum tech on The Subways All Or Nothing and GD's 21st Century Breakdown).

As far as guitar tones....that's not a quick answer...I'll start to chip away at it!

[edvdr76]

Hello there Butch........ HUGE fan of your work. Regarding the drum sound on Nirvana's Nevermind. What sort of compression techniques were you using on that record? It seems like the drums are super huge and open sounding on that album!